In almost all of John Beilein’s stops as a head coach, which span more than 20 years, one of the things he’s been known for is his 1-3-1 zone defense.

This year, the sometimes-flustering zone has all but disappeared from Michigan’s playbook. It hasn't been an issue, though, because the Wolverines have become a better man-to-man defensive team.

“I’m more excited with our man to man than anything,” Beilein said. “It’s getting better. We’re understanding it a little bit more, but we’ve got a lot of clips today. We’re not only going to have to play defense well but we’re going to have to box out.”

Michigan’s man looked particularly sharp against Indiana on Thursday, but Connecticut brings length in the frontcourt and both talent and speed in the backcourt from Jerome Dyson and Kemba Walker which will make playing good defense even more paramount.

“We’re just trying to get back to the basics of our man,” sophomore guard Stu Douglass said. “I know when we get down to it, man is what is going to win us games.

“We didn’t play that very well and we just have to keep working at it but it’s gotten better, especially against IU.”

Part of the reason that Michigan is sticking with man has been its lack of focus throughout the season. In a zone, if one player loses focus for a second, the entire defense can fall apart.

Defense has been a season-long issue for Beilein. At least for a night on Thursday, when Michigan forced Indiana into 19 turnovers and held the Hoosiers to 36.5 percent shooting and 6.7 percent from the three-point line, the shortcomings seemed to go away.

But that's been Michigan's problem, carrying it over from one game to the next.

"There's been an uneven and erratic nature to their play," former UCLA coach and current ESPN analyst Steve Lavin said before the Michigan-Indiana game Thursday. "They haven't demonstrated the ability to sustain intensity and concentration on the defensive end of the floor and offensively they have not found that rhythm and clearly not in sync as they were late last year in their impressive run.

"From half-to-half and game to game they've lacked the consistency it takes to win in a competitive conference like the Big Ten."

Michael Rothstein covers University of Michigan basketball for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at (734) 623-2558, by e-mail at michaelrothstein@annarbor.com or follow along on Twitter @mikerothstein.